


The Study of Light

by SpaceInvading



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Frenemies Dib & Zim (Invader Zim), Gen, Irken Empire (Invader Zim), Irken society being a mess, Older Dib (Invader Zim), Skoodge is too good for this universe, Though lbr they're more friends than enemies, War on Meekrob, ZADF
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-19 00:43:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22969201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceInvading/pseuds/SpaceInvading
Summary: It's been several years since the Florpus incident, and even Zim's talent for denial couldn't stand up to the disappearance of the Tallest and the Armada. With no real point to his mission any longer, Zim's decided to give up on trying to conquer the Earth, and has instead settled into a new normal of learning about the planet, humanity, and all the paranormal nonsense his best frenemy is into.However while heading out to investigate a cryptid, Zim and Dib receive an Irken distress signal that immediately overturns the pattern they'd gotten into, leading them to become involved in an intergalactic war that just might actually reach Earth this time.
Relationships: Dib & Zim (Invader Zim)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 25





	The Study of Light

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! As a kid I watched Zim when it first aired, and now nearly two decades later I've somehow ended up dragged into the IZ fandom and I regret nothing. So please enjoy my first fic, and I hope you have as much fun reading as I've been having writing.
> 
> Also, please feel free to check out my tumblr https://spaceinvading.tumblr.com/ ! I'd love to talk you all. 8D

“You _ARE_ the father!”

The sounds of applause and yelling drew Dib’s attention immediately from his laptop screen, where he had been frowning at what he was pretty sure was the photographer’s thumb being passed off as a Bigfoot. His eyes narrowed as he turned in his seat to look at Zim.

The little alien was lounging on Dib’s bed, watching what was apparently trashy daytime TV on a tablet-like device and eating some sort of Irken snack with one hand. He looked up upon noticing Dib’s gaze on him.

“Humans are loud.” Zim stated, with no trace of irony, and Dib had to resist the urge to comment on it. He regretted his restraint, since it allowed Zim to continue with a question, “Why do they seem to dislike procreating? Isn’t it a goal of your species?”

Dib wondered, not for the first time, how his life had gotten to this point.

There he was, an eighteen year old boy who was the most knowledgeable human in the world when it came to extraterrestrial intelligence, and who had spent years fighting to protect Earth from an alien menace. An alien menace that was currently watching Maury five feet away and questioning the phenomenon of deadbeat parents, as Dib procrastinated doing his homework by looking at photos of cryptids. It would’ve been surreal if it hadn’t been basically the norm for a long time now.

“It’s… Complicated.” Dib answered, eventually, after Zim had already turned his attention back to the show. Zim’s left antenna twitched--usually an indication he’d heard him, though that was the damaged antenna so it was hard to tell--but the Irken didn’t bother to respond, apparently unimpressed with the lame, delayed answer. Dib was just glad to be able to return to looking at his own screen without being questioned further.

Not that anything he was looking at on his screen was super compelling, unfortunately; blurry, ambiguous photographs passed by in sequence, showing just enough usual features to be interesting but not enough to provide any information. Dib was hoping there would be something new and promising to follow up on and investigate, but as usual it was just a lot of nothing and he was slowly realizing he might have to actually write his paper instead.

He groaned loudly and leaned back dramatically in his chair, sinking down in it a little as a show of his frustration. “There’s _nothing_ good. I just want to go investigate _something_ that isn’t a lost alien or a creep in a costume or an escaped experiment! Where’s all the good stuff?”

“Probably hiding from your giant head.” Gaz offered in response as she entered the room without even pretending to knock, opening a soda. “Don’t you have homework to do?”

“Not now, Gaz, I’m--”

“The lie detector says… THAT WAS A LIE!”

“AHA!” Zim exclaimed, jolting to sit up straight. “I _knew_ that smelly bar-human was lying!”

Gaz stared at the alien for a few moments and then turned her gaze to Dib, who just sighed and shook his head before looking over at his… Frenemy, he supposed, if he was forced to come up with just one word for whatever their relationship was.

It was the ‘Fr’ part of that word that prompted him to ask, “Zim, why are you watching that? You’re gonna get even dumber than you already are.” 

Zim just waved a few times dismissively, giant red eyes still locked on the screen as Dib caught sight of someone dancing on stage. That was the last straw, and he reached over to pluck the tablet out of the alien’s hand. That earned an overly-loud and extended noise of complaint from Zim, along with some flailing, but no real effort to take back the device.

“This is so NOT research, Zim.”

“It is too! I’m learning about the contradictory, nonsensical, unfathomable nature of your species’ views on parentage! Give that back!”

“No, Zim, geez.” Dib responded in irritation, holding the tablet over his head and well out of Zim’s reach, as Gaz rolled her eyes and decided that was the moment to leave the idiots to their squabble and disappeared from the room as quickly as she’d arrived. Dib could tell the alien was considering if it was worth it to pull out his Pak legs, when Zim’s gaze shifted--or at least Dib thought it did, it was often hard to tell when Zim wasn’t wearing contacts--past Dib, toward his computer screen.

“Eurgh, what IS that!?” Zim asked in disgust, voice not quite into the shrieking zone but definitely raised with genuine revulsion as he shrank back comically, temporarily giving up all attempts to get his tablet.

Dib looked back, realizing he’d accidentally hit a button and advanced to the next picture, which was… Well, it made sense why Zim had that reaction. The image was actually two pictures side by side, one an old photo Dib recognized as a classic and one that was new, both depicting a somewhat grotesque money-like creature. The new picture was blurry, like most cryptid pictures were, but it did look distinctly weird and unlike any known monkey that Dib was aware of. Hm.  
  
“It’s De Loy’s ape; even among cryptozoologists it’s been like, 98% believed to have been a hoax, but if there’s a new sighting…” Dib wasn’t particularly convinced, but it was _something_. With the best alternatives so far being a blurry blob of a Bigfoot, some guy claiming to have been visited by a ghost horse, and actually writing the paper that was due in a week, Dib had a definite preference.

He turned a little to glance at Zim, offering a smirk. “Wanna go check it out?”

“No.” Zim answered immediately, unimpressed, crossing his arms and sticking out his tongue. “It’s gross. Even more gross than your Earth apes usually are. Really, really gross, ew.”

“Are you _scared?_ ” Dib asked in response, leaning a little closer to the alien and using his height advantage to be even more obnoxious. “Scared of an probably-fake Earth ape? Really Zim? After all this time on this planet?”

It was too easy, and Dib knew it. He also knew that Zim knew it. And he knew the outcome would still be the same anyway.

“ _FINE_.” Zim said, baring his strange teeth in a sneer that Dib could immediately tell was all dramatics. “Fine, Zim will go with you, because Zim is not afraid! Besides, if this thing _is_ real, then the Dib will need help. We know what happened _last_ time.”

“Nothing happened _last time_!” Dib protested, throwing his hands up in exasperation. “We were _fine_!”

“Yes, because of the mighty brilliance of ZIM!” Zim responded with a dramatic clenching of his fist. 

“Oh my god, you’re impossible.” Dib said in turn, rolling his eyes, but Zim’s weirdness couldn’t dampen his mood now that he had an investigation to conduct. He set Zim’s tablet on the desk next to his laptop and went to his closet to begin packing, chattering away half to himself and half to Zim about the history of the cryptid as he dug through supplies.

The faint sounds of paternity test results filtered through the small space, and Dib sighed once again. He had a feeling he knew what they’d be watching in the Voot.

* * *

  
  


Dib wasn’t wrong, but he’d had to put up with the trash TV for a shorter period of time than he expected. They’d barely left the town, flying for maybe twenty minutes, before an alert began to sound on the console.

Zim’s antennae lifted in surprise and interest, and he paused his show and turned his attention to the Voot’s dashboard. Dib glanced over at him. “What’s that alert?”

“It’s a distress signal.” Zim answered, tone an odd mix of clipped and disbelieving, one of his claws hovering over a button but not pressing it. Dib’s eyebrows furrowed.

“Are you going to answer it?” He asked, unable to read the expression on the Irken’s face, but the hesitation was… Unusual, for sure. Zim was a lot of things, many of them more complex than Dib used to believe, but hesitant still wasn’t usually one of them. 

“It’s Irken.” Zim said, finally, tone unusually neutral and his antennae now lowered. “There shouldn’t be any Irkens nearby. No one would come here.” _No one would call me_ was left unspoken, but Dib heard it loudly enough. 

“Do you think it’s a trap?” He asked, lowering his own voice automatically, a weirdly serious tension hanging over them. He’d seen Zim serious before, of course, and it had become more and more common as Zim had mellowed out a bit in the last few years, but it was still strange especially when outside of an immediately dangerous situation.

Zim didn’t answer immediately, still seemingly frozen in indecision, but then all of a sudden it broke. He pressed the button and immediately the feed connected.

The screen that displayed was hazy and slightly skewed, indicating that whoever was on the other end had damaged equipment. Static burst through it intermittently, and it was hard to see anything at all between the damage and the darkness of the scene itself; after a second or two Dib could make out what looked like some tree trunks, and maybe pine needles close to the camera. Was the camera on the ground? Who had sent the signal? There was no one to be seen.

“Identify yourself.” Zim commanded suddenly, voice loud and authoritative, but if whoever was on the other end of the line was intimidated they didn’t show it; there was no change, the screen still showing a forest floor at night with no sound except for the occasional static.

Zim made an irritated noise, beginning to press buttons on the console, and Dib leaned over to try to read what he was doing.

“Of course Zim can track a distress signal.” Zim answered immediately, the superiority in his tone a familiar and welcome change from his uncharacteristic behavior since the call had come in. “Your horrifying monkey-monster will have to wait.”

“My-- Oh right.” The point of their excursion. Dib had already put it out of mind, much more interested in the new development. “Yeah, it can wait. So we’re gonna check out where the signal’s coming from? You’re sure that’s a good idea?”

Zim glared his direction briefly, and Dib sighed. “Okay, but like, it could be a trap. You said yourself there shouldn’t be any Irkens around, so what if it isn’t one? What if someone stole a ship?”

“You mean like you did?” Zim asked, unimpressed, continuing to type on his console. 

“Well, yeah, but no, because Tak’s ship crashed on my lawn.” Dib responded, rolling his eyes, but was distracted from his further protests by the sight of blinking dot on the navigation screen. Dib still couldn’t read the console very well, despite picking up a decent amount of written Irken, but it was obvious enough that Zim had pinpointed the distress signal.

“How far is it?”

“Not far. Less than ten minutes.” Zim said, pressing a few more buttons and causing the Voot to veer a little to the west. Finally, he looked away from the console, and picked up his tablet again. “That’s enough time to finish my episode!”

* * *

  
  


The Voot landed quietly, touching down in a small clearing; the forest was dense, but had apparently suffered in a recent storm and so there were several patchy areas suitable to land to small ship in. The windshield opened, allowing Zim and Dib to get a better view of their surroundings, and both hopped out to take a look around.

Dib dug in his pockets and pulled out a mini maglite, switching it on and sweeping it around; their little clearing was bright enough, with the stars and the moon overhead, but at the treeline the flashlight beam seemed to be completely absorbed by the darkness. The wind rustled the leaves and groundcover, causing the shadows to move ominously, and if Dib weren’t so used to this sort of thing it would’ve been really, really creepy.

As it was, it was just normal amounts of creepy.

“Which way?” He asked Zim, who was fiddling with his tablet still, but this time thankfully not to watch more talk shows. Instead, Dib could see the same navigation screen the Voot had, displayed on the semi-transparent tablet.

Instead of answering, Zim spun slowly left and then right, holding his tablet out in front of him, a soft beeping growing louder as the tablet was turned to the right. A button press later and it went silent, a Pak-leg reaching out to take the tablet and store it. “This way, Dib-thing.”

Dib frowned at the subdued response, a clear indication Zim wasn’t as confident about this entire situation as he’d pretended to be, which in turn made Dib more nervous. Sure, Zim was a little more stable and self-aware than he had been when Dib was a kid, but he still wasn’t the most cautious of individuals; if Zim was unsure about something then there were more than enough reason for anyone else to be very worried about it.

“Look, Zim, best case scenario this really is an Irken distress signal, and it’s from an Irken, right? Worst case scenario it’s a trap. Do you have a plan for either of these possibilities?”  
  


“Of course Zim has a plan; Zim _always_ has a plan.” Zim informed him, beginning to lead the way into the tree line. Dib followed closely, more so that he didn’t lose sight of the small alien than out of fear of being alone.

“Okay, well, what's this plan, then?”

Somehow, Dib wasn’t surprised when there was no response. He gave a loud sigh, casting his flashlight beam around, looking for whatever they were trying to find; if a ship had crashed, like it had appeared from the transmission they’d gotten, then there should be some obvious signs of it soon enough.

And indeed there was, after only a few more minutes of walking, when a laser suddenly cut through the darkness and just barely missed Zim, who launched himself out of the way on his Pak legs just in time. Dib threw himself the opposite direction, ducking behind a tree, looking Zim’s direction just as the alien ducked behind cover of his own.

“What the hell--” Dib started, when more lasers began to fire; they all missed, apparently shooting without any real targeting, but they passed closer to him than Zim this time and he realized the aiming was probably based on sound.

“It’s an automatic defense system!” Zim called back, arms over his head as one of his Pak legs charged its laser and then peeked around the tree trunk, firing into the direction of the attack. “It’s probably from the ship that crashed, and--”

Suddenly, as if a switch was flipped, the lasers stopped completely and all went silent.

Dib glanced sideways at Zim, who peeked out from under his arm to return the uncertain look, and then a familiar voice called from the darkness.

“Zim? Is that you?”

“ _Skoodge_!?” Zim and Dib asked at once, both leaning fully out from behind their respective trees. Dib shone his light into the darkness, revealed the glinting metal of a ship and the form of a small Irken invader; Skoodge looked banged up, dark green bruises here and there on his skin and his normally dishevelled uniform even dirtier and more tattered than usual, but his expression brightened as soon as he recognized who had come looking for him.

“It is you!” He proclaimed, clasping his hands together joyfully, gaze briefly flickering toward Dib but then focusing primarily on Zim. “I hoped you’d pick up my signal, but I was being followed, and--”

“Wait, you were being followed?” Dib broke in, those words and his intuition causing his skin to prickle, the forest feeling like it fell completely silent and ominous in a moment.

Skoodge’s gaze shifted from Zim to Dib, nodding hesitantly. “Uh, yeah, I think I lost them before I crashed, but--”

Dib saw both Skoodge and Zim’s antennae raise, giving him enough warning to dive for cover once more as the night lit up with laser fire once again. He heard the two Irkens screech, though it sounded like their usual dramatic noises rather than that either was hurt, and a bunch of shuffling and scrambling followed.

“Back to the ship, Dib!” Zim’s voice cut through the noise, and Dib barely had a chance to look up before he was being passed by metallic spider legs. “I’ll shoot that flying toaster of a ship right out of the sky!”

“You’ll-- Where’s Skoodge?” Dib asked, taking off in a run after Zim, trying to keep up with the Pak legs with limited success. 

“His ship; its defenses will hold off the enemy for now!” Thankfully it wasn’t far back to the Voot, and it was coming into view of Dib’s flashlight quickly enough now that they were running instead of walking. The windshield was still down and Zim clambered quickly inside, Pak legs withdrawing just in time for Dib to vault himself into the ship as well, and a moment later the Voot was lifting into the sky.

The windshield slammed down just as they cleared the tree line, a ship coming into view. It wasn’t any model Dib recognized, though even he would admit he wasn’t extremely well-versed in alien spacecraft; it wasn’t Irken, he could tell that much, but beyond that he didn’t know. Zim didn’t offer any immediate identification either, attention on the controls, and Dib decided not to distract him; Zim’s piloting skills were hit or miss at best, and some days he was competent, or even--not that Dib would ever admit it--bordered on impressive, pulling off elaborate maneuvers without a thought. Other days, he managed to crash the ship ten minutes into a joyride, leaving them stranded on a cliffside until GIR showed up to rescue them. What a day that had been.

The enemy ship seemed to notice them and stopped shooting into the trees, turning in place to face the Voot just as Zim opened fire. The other ship dodged, barely, returning lasers and prompting Zim to jerk the controls hard to left, sending both himself and Dib against the wall.

“Could you not, Zim!” Dib shouted, shoving Zim back into the pilot’s seat with a foot as he pried himself off the wall. Zim ignored him in favor of accelerating, slamming Dib back into the back wall of the ship this time, and yet again Dib wondered how he’d gotten to the point where he was so used to being in a spaceship with an alien that he just found the bad flying annoying instead of an incredible, surreal experience.

Zim pressed the controls forward and the Voot dived before suddenly leveling out, skimming the trees and zipping around the enemy ship from below. Dib clung to the side of the pilot’s seat, bracing himself as Zim pulled up again, doing half a loop and then flipping over so that they were lined up with their opponent, which was comparatively slow to turn on its own axis. In fact, it was slow enough that Zim had a chance to shout dramatically, hand poised over the controls for the weapons--

“Eat lasers, pitiful following… Follower-ship!”

Dib facepalmed.

It turned out that it might’ve been for the best that he didn’t actually see the shots hit; instead he heard the enemy ship explode just as he felt the Voot suddenly jerked to the side again. Unfortunately it wasn’t a lurch as if Zim had turned the ship but rather that it had been hit, and Zim’s sudden shrieking indicated that was indeed the case just as the ship actually started to fall. Dib braced himself again, the ship hitting the treetops a split second later, snapping branches as it fell before impacting the ground hard, causing Dib’s teeth to rattle and leaving him pretty sure he was going to feel this tomorrow.

Zim had stopped screaming suddenly, which Dib realized with a jolt of anxiety, and he forced his eyes open again to look for the alien; he left out a long sigh of relief to see Zim picking himself up off the dashboard, apparently just winded--Dib would have to ask later how that worked for Irkens--and soon sitting up in his chair, proclaiming through a wheeze, “Victory for Zim!”

“You’re an idiot.” Dib told him, pushing himself off the floor of the cruiser. Zim just shrugged, already fully recovered, reaching out to open the windshield again and revealing they had been coincidentally lucky enough to crash-land right next to Skoodge’s ship; the invader was just reappearing from behind said ship, offering a small wave as if there was nothing at all weird about this situation.

“Hey, you’re back.”

* * *

  
  


As it turned out, the ship that had been following Skoodge was unmanned; it had crashed into the forest just like the Voot did, and Dib and the invaders had gone to check it out. Dib was half relieved and half disappointed that the ship was empty--he was glad no one died, but also would’ve loved an excuse to learn more about another alien species--but it was definitely convenient to only have to deal with the ship itself.

Not that there was a lot of the ship left; Zim had nailed it with the last shot, and it seemed that the ship wasn’t all that durable to begin with. What remained was mostly just scrap, and Zim soon declared there was nothing of value to be used in fixing Skoodge’s ship or the Voot and so the group had soon returned to the two Irken spacecraft.

“The time for explanations is now.” Zim declared as he began looking over the Voot to assess the damage. “Why are you here, Skoodge? And why would anyone bother to follow you?” His tone was mostly neutral--as neutral as Zim got, anyway--but it was just slightly scathing with clear implications to the question; why would Skoodge be so important as to be followed, and why would he come to Earth?

Skoodge bit his lip for a moment, antennae lowered a little in uncertainty at the tone before finally answering simply, “I was sent to find you.”

Zim’s attention snapped away from the Voot and back to Skoodge, his own antennae raising in surprise--the left lagging slightly behind the right, as usual--and red eyes narrowing sharply. “Find me for _what reason_?”

Dib’s mental alarms were going off, not necessarily because of Skoodge’s possible motivations--he didn’t know Skoodge well, but he didn’t really think he was particularly malicious as far as Irkens went--but because he could tell Zim’s paranoia had spiked and he was moments away from a preemptive attempt to protect himself from a threat. 

Apparently Skoodge could tell that too, because he raised his hands and waved them rapidly in a gesture meant to be placating. “The Tallest wants your help! We’re at war, Zim.” When Zim didn’t make any further movement, Skoodge continued, “Tallest Dreg declared war on Meekrob a few weeks ago. He’s calling in every Irken that might be able to fight, but he specifically wanted me to look for you.”

Silence hung for a moment at that news, clearly not the answer Zim was expecting and definitely not the one Dib was expecting. “Okay, but that’s still not _why_.” He said finally, gaze shifting rapidly between the two Irkens. “Why Zim specifically? And why didn’t this new tallest--what’s his name, Dreg?--why didn’t he just call?”

“He was worried the message would be intercepted. We think the Meekrob have been hacking messages already, since they’ve been ready for some of our attacks that they shouldn’t have known about.” Skoodge explained, still eyeing Zim nervously, but Zim seemed less on the verge of pulling out Pak legs and eradicating his fellow invader. “But he wants Zim specifically since Zim’s… Really good at destroying things.”

“What, really?” Dib asked incredulously just as Zim suddenly laughed, dramatically chiming in with, “Of course Zim is good at destroying things! It’s one of my many, innumerable, incredible talents!”

“Okay, yeah, but…” This didn’t seem right to Dib for so many reasons, but it was all happening very fast and he needed to phrase his concerns carefully; Zim was less of a loose canon at this point, at least in regards to Dib, but he certainly wasn’t known for his ability to deal with delicate subjects gracefully. “Why does this new guy think that’s a good thing? I mean, the other Tallest didn’t exactly uh, appreciate those talents.”

As expected, once again Zim’s expression darkened and his antennae flattened a little, but he didn’t make any move or give any protest and Dib took that as an invitation to continue. “I know you said the war just started, but there’s been a new Tallest for years now, right? So he’s had lots of time to contact Zim before if he genuinely thought he was an asset to the empire or whatever. It just feels like, a little suspicious, you know?”

Two sets of red Irken eyes stared at Dib, Zim’s piercing and Skoodge’s somewhat unsure, both silent for long enough that Dib started to feel awkward. Okay, sure, maybe that was a little more obvious concern for Zim’s well-being than he liked to show, but it wasn’t unwarranted; a war was kind of serious business.

Finally, Zim broke the silence, expression shifting in an instant to casual as he shrugged a shoulder, waving a hand. “The Dib has a point. It does seem suspicious, although Zim hopes that Tallest Dreg simply chooses to wisely recognize Zim’s greatness.”

“Uh… Yeah...” Skoodge responded, still very hesitant, and Dib didn’t know Skoodge well enough to figure out why but there were plenty of potential reasons. “I’m sorry, I don’t know any more details. But I don’t think it’s any sort of trap or anything, he didn’t mention anything about… You know… Anything.”

Anything. Right. Dib glanced at Zim, whose antennae had lowered again and whose eyes had gone a little distant; that was the depression expression, as Dib had started calling it many years before. Skodge was being tactful, at least, obviously knowing exactly why Zim would be unsure about returning to the Empire--not that there was a shortage of reasons at this point--and it didn’t seem like he was holding that against him or had any inclination that Zim answering the summons would be dangerous for him. But Skoodge being genuine didn’t mean there was no ulterior motive from the new Tallest, just that it hadn’t been apparent.

Silence stretched again, and Dib turned his attention toward Zim again. “Maybe we should get back to your base? We can figure this out there.” Dib suggested, gesturing at their surroundings; two damaged ships and another destroyed one just out of sight in the trees, darkness hanging over them all. This wasn’t the worst place to have a serious conversation, all things considered, but it wasn’t the best one either.

“Right. I’ve left GIR alone for far too long.” Zim said, snapping out of his momentary quiet, turning back to his ship again as if none of the previous conversation had happened. “The Voot requires only minor repairs. Zim will have it functional within the hour.”

“Great.” Dib said, and he meant it, before something dawned on him. 

“Uh... Are we all going to fit?”


End file.
